Hand Cloud Across the Sky


Photo © Peter Y. Chou— "Hand Cloud Across the Sky"
on El Camino Real & Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA;
from Stanford SE Bus on Sunday, October 6, 2013, 6:58 pm



Sunset clouds on El Camino Real
from Stanford Bus, 10/6/2013, 6:56 pm



Sunset clouds on El Camino Real
from Stanford Bus, 10/6/2013, 6:57 pm



Sunset clouds on El Camino Real
from Stanford Bus, 10/6/2013, 6:57 pm



Wolverine with sharp claws
film starring Hugh Jackman (2013)


It's twelve minutes after sunset
with streaks of orange and gray
clouds behind tall palm trees
conjuring up a Monet painting.

Riding the Stanford Shuttle Bus
on El Camino Real, took photos
through the window to capture
this impressionistic art scene.

Pine trees on the street are blurry
with car headlights elongated
like tubes of fluorescent lights
with firmament of pink and blue.

This evening's sunset radiance
resembled the sublime glow that
Delacroix splashed in two hours
on the wall of Dumas costume ball.

The bus is at Page Mill Road
and eight redwoods are lined
against the azure twilight with
cloud streaks like five fingers

of a giant hand stretching across
the sky— Is this The Hand of God
that Rodin molded in his sculpture
or is a cosmic sky painter at work?

The fingers of this giant hand cloud
are extremely long almost like those
sharp claws of the Wolverine ready
to strike his enemies with red rage.


    — Peter Y. Chou
        Mountain View, 10-23-2013


Rodin's The Hand of God (1896)
Musée Rodin, Paris



Marvel Comics character
Wolverine with sharp claws
first appeared in Nov. 1974